10 Tips To Supercharge Your Savings

Most of us find saving difficult. That’s not surprising, as research shows our brains are hard-wired for immediate gratification. The flashy new car we can have right now has a lot more appeal than some vague notion of financial security later on. But there are ways to tilt the odds toward saving.

Here are 10 simple but effective ways you can bolster your nest egg:

1. Meet Your Future Self

Research shows that we tend to save more when we feel connected to the person who’ll benefit from the money we’re putting away — i.e., our future selves. But how, you may ask, can the “you” of today to get acquainted with the “you” of 10, 20 or more years down the road?

You can’t actually meet, of course, but there is a way to develop a connection of sorts, by going to a tool like Merrill Edge’s Face Retirement, which you can find in my site’s Retirement Toolbox.

The process is simple: The Face Retirement tool takes a snapshot of you, runs some age-morphing software and then shows you what an older you might look like. This is no parlor trick. Researchers at Stanford University have found that the people who go through such an exercise are more likely to save.

2. Lash Yourself to a Mast (Metaphorically Speaking)

If you were paying attention in those classics courses in college, you’ll remember that at one point in The Odyssey, Ulysses tied himself to the mast of his ship. No, nothing kinky. He just wanted to be absolutely sure he wouldn’t gravitate toward the seductive song of the Sirens and wreck his vessel on the shoals.

Fortunately, you don’t have to resort to such drastic measures to save money. You can employ what’s known as a “commitment device” — essentially, a way of making yourself do something you want to do but may not do without being forced in some way.

For example, by going to Stickk.com, you can commit to a savings goal of your choice — say, saving $5,000 over the course of a year. Your incentive to stick to that commitment? You agree beforehand that if you fall short of your goal, you’ll pay a penalty — maybe $100 — to a person or group you don’t particularly like (say, the NRA if you’re for gun control). You can use the same strategy to set limits on your retirement spending.

One of the most effective ways to save is to put money away before you can get your greedy little hands on it. Enroll in your 401(k) or other company payroll deduction plan and contribute at least enough to qualify for employer matching funds.